Russian and Scandinavian

[Luca250392]

Hi!
What do you think of russian and scandinavian civilisations? I wasn't able to find an article about them. I really dislike cossak but in the higher level i think that to be espasionist and scientific does help at the beginning. And i always found the ancient age the most difficult one (demigod level). Instead i do love bersark and in archipelagos map i think that Scandinavian could be a really good civilisation(sorry for the grammar my English is a little bit rusty). What do you reckon?

 

[WeirdoJoker]

When playing Russia I tend to go for the Spaceship. Vikings (Scandinavia) are great for warmaking once you have the Berserker, because no one else has anyone who can attack from a ship until late Industrial when they get Marines. My one Viking game I played was an easy Domination victory with the Berkerkers, even after they were officially obsolete.

Playing the Mongols is my current problem, though, and I might just abandon the two games I've got going. I'll give them both another shot, though ... might break through.

 

[Luca250392]

I'm playing France right know. It has the same problem of Russia i don't like the UU but the combination of commercial and industrious is really good. Honestly i have never played Mongols i could try them but in a lower level

 

[Scratcher]

What do you think of russian and scandinavian civilisations? I wasn't able to find an article about them. I really dislike cossak

I'm sorry, I can't agree with you. The Russian Cossack is an awesome unit..... beeline to Military Tradition, upgrade all your horses / knights to Cossacks which have 3 movement, with repeat attack, generatating lots of elite units, which in turn generates lots of MGLs. This gives you many armies, and the chance to rush all the small wonders.

The Cossack is useful right up to the AI is able to build infantry as a defender, which is basically a complete research age.

Even on a huge map it is possible to take over most of the world with Cossacks and Cossack armies.

Scratcher

 

[CKS]

Conquests cossacks and PTW cossacks are totally different units, so you might not actually be disagreeing.

 

[Scratcher]

Yes, you're right, the Conquest Cossack is better than the Vanilla / PTW Cossack - but regardless of the game version - the Cavalry / Cossack / Siphia units are one of the most powerful attacking units in the game. What is there not to like about them?

Scratcher

 

[Luca250392]

They are too similar to normal cavalry they can just attack more than once, and against a fantery is useless ( i m playing conquest)

 

[Luca250392]

They are not as good as immortals,siphai,berserkers legionaries etc

 

[justanick]

Being able to attack more than once per turn helps to generate leaders. That make it quite useful.

 

[tjs282]

They are too similar to normal cavalry they can just attack more than once, and against a fantery is useless ( i m playing conquest)

Even Tanks (A=16) can have a hard time against healthy Infs fortified in cities (with +10% terrain, +25% fortification and +50% city-defence bonuses at minimum, effective D=18[.5]).

So, yeah, sending any Cavalry-type unit (A=6), up to and including Sipahi (A=8), against healthy Infantry, is a pretty effective way of wasting a huge quantity of (your) unit-shields — which is why you shouldn't attack under those circumstances (and no-one is advising you to). Conversely, if you (do the smart thing and) redline those Infs first using intensive Cannon (or Artillery, or Bomber) bombardment, then your Cavs/Cossacks will have a much better chance of killing all the defenders within a single turn.

By the early Industrial, the AI has usually garrisoned around 3-4 defenders per ordinary city. So even then, you'd probably still need 4-6 ordinary single-attack Cavs to be sure of killing all the defenders; but with blitz-capable Cossacks, you may only need half those numbers to take each town. And assuming each Cossack is at least a veteran to start with (which they should be, if you're taking them on invasion-campaigns!), then for every unit that wins 2 fights per turn, you'll get a guaranteed unit-promotion into the bargain.

My only problem with Cossacks (and also the mounted units in the Sengoku scenario), is that I usually forget that they can blitz...

 

[Quintillus]

I'm with Scratcher on this one. The Blitz makes the Cossack awesome, especially if you have tech parity, and even more so if you beeline them. You can easily rack up MGLs, and even aside from that, advance more quickly thanks to successful Cossacks being able to attack again. tjs282 has already done as good of a job as I could have on explaining how they can still be useful later on.

PTW Cossacks (6/4/3, no blitz) aren't as great, but if you get them first (and unless you're on a very high difficulty, you should be able to get them first by beelining), it still means that no enemy unit other than elites has a >50% chance of defeating one. Granted, I typically play at difficulties below Demigod.

Berserkers can be really effective too. Obviously so on Pangaea, but even if not... protect them with Pikemen, and you can devastate enemy cities in the Middle Ages even without any catapults or Trebs. My only beef with them is they're expensive for the time, and due to that I find it hard to justify sending them in without Pikemen protection... if a 40 shield Medieval Infantry has a good shot of taking out a 70 shield Berserker, that's not a great trade.

 

[timerover51]

As I use Cossacks with some added hit points for my Advanced Barbarian unit, I do not play Russia, and allow Russia to be played. As for Berserks, I play Scandinavia a fair bit because of them, again with boosted hit points. I do have them upgrade to Marines, however, rather then keep them Berserks. My Marine unit is also upgraded over the standard one. A massive stack of Barbarian Cossacks does cause me quite a few problems in my games, especially in Test of Time when played under Play the World rules. The Barbarians are a bit less active in Conquests, even when set to Raging.